Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan has issued a new pamphlet for municipalities across the state. Produced by his office and the state’s Immigration Task Force, the “Guidance to Vermont Cities and Towns Regarding Immigration Enforcement” provides information regarding localities’ “ability to prohibit and restrict certain actions with respect to working with the federal government on enforcing federal immigration law.” Donovan explains why he felt it was important to provide the information to Vermont’s municipalities.

"Obviously given the Executive Orders that came out regarding the so-called travel ban this was a topic that was being discussed very much so in this state. And immigration law is an incredibly complicated area of the law. More so when you add in what the state’s role is when it comes to federal immigration policy. So we thought as a way to better inform the conversation we would put out some guidance that really just kind of highlighted the black letter law, if you will, regarding federal immigration policy, again as a way to better inform cities and towns throughout Vermont."

On Tuesday the new Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly issued a memo implementing the president’s immigration executive order. In the memo, Secretary Kelly notes he is authorized to enter into agreements with states to authorize “qualified officers or employees of the state …. to perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension, or detention of aliens in the United States.” That is raising red flags in the statehouse in Vermont. Earlier this month, a bill was introduced that would require any federal move to use local or state law enforcement first be approved by the governor. Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman, a Progressive, says the bill is scheduled for action in the state Senate today.

Vermont Republican Governor Phil Scott met with reporters at the Statehouse in Montpelier today to discuss a number of issues facing the legislature and his administration. One of the primary topics is a piece of legislation under consideration that would require any federal immigration actions in Vermont to be approved by the governor.

In Josh Barkan’s Mexico: Stories the characters - chef, architect, nurse, high school teacher, painter, beauty queen, classical bass player, plastic surgeon, businessman, mime - are simply trying to lead their lives and steer clear of violence. Yet, inevitably, crime has a way of intruding on their lives all the same.

A surgeon finds himself forced into performing a risky procedure on a narco killer. A teacher struggles to protect lovestruck students whose forbidden romance has put them in mortal peril. A painter’s freewheeling ways land him in the back of a kidnapper’s car. Again and again, the walls between “ordinary life” and cartel violence are shown to be paper thin, and when they collapse the consequences are life-changing.